The 7 Best Commuter Bike Lights of 2025

The Planet Bike Beamer 700 is our top pick for urban bike commuters. This headlight is bright enough to cut through urban light pollution, and its beam pattern is wide enough to illuminate jaywalkers, potholes, and low-hanging branches.

The Beamer 700 has a generous run time—4½ hours at its 350-lumen “medium” setting, the mode I used most often. So it should last most daily commuters a week between charges (that’s assuming a ride time of about half an hour each way, and not riding in complete darkness the whole time).

The cam-adjuster-style mount expands or shrinks to fit most handlebars via a thumbscrew. The body of the light attaches to the mount via a quick-release latch, which makes it easy to remove for charging (or to keep it away from sticky fingers).

A former top pick, Portland Design Works’ City Rover 700 is still a very good headlight. And a recent update from micro-USB to USB-C trims two hours off of its recharge time. Although the City Rover 700’s battery life (four hours on the medium setting of 350 lumens) is not as robust as that of our top pick, it still should power an average urban commuter through the workweek.

If your commute is packed with intersections, you may actually prefer the City Rover 700 over the Beamer 700, since it has the largest, most visible side lights of any headlight I tested. Like our top pick, the City Rover 700 has a quick-release latch, for easy removal, but its rubber mounting strap takes far more effort to install than the Beamer 700’s cam mount. The City Rover 700 is also a little more expensive.

If your commute is short or lightly trafficked, the NiteRider Swift 300 may be all you need to see and be seen on the road. About the size of a nail polish bottle, this light will kick out 300 lumens for up to two hours. The Swift 300 has an all-in-one swiveling rubber mounting strap (rather than a quick-release latch, like those on our top and runner-up picks), and it’s not quite as easy to remove when you’ve reached your destination.

Despite its low price, this plastic light includes many features found on our top and runner-up picks, including side cutouts for visibility, a low-power indicator, and a lock-out mode (which prevents it from accidentally turning on in your bag).

These days, you can buy a light that boasts up to 3,000 lumens. But for the urban commuter, brighter is (often) not better. For most riders anything over 800 lumens is overkill, as well as a potential danger to other users’ eyes.

However, I have a long commute on rural roads, and I often start or end my ride in the dark. Riders with similar commutes need a very bright light that can switch into lower modes once the sun has risen and they’ve reached busier streets. And they likely also need waterproof lights, since they’re at greater risk of being caught in inclement weather.

The Blackburn Dayblazer 1000 can run for 90 minutes at 1,000 lumens and for 5½ hours at 350 lumens. For riders commuting long distances (say, more than 10 miles), that combination provides enough time—and light—to safely get to work or school and home again. Its machined-aluminum body is waterproof, and it has cooling fins to disperse the (substantial) heat the light generates.

Instead of one large LED, the Cygolite Hotrod 120 has a cluster of 20 tightly packed chip-on-board (COB) LEDs—all protected by a clear domed enclosure—that emit impossible-to-ignore light. (Kind of how pavé diamonds catch the light better than one big solitaire diamond.) Thanks to this design, all seven modes on the taillight are truly arresting from a wide variety of angles.

The Hotrod 120 is water-resistant, with a well-fitting USB charge port cover (on the back) that snugs up against your seat post (for extra protection from the elements), and it’s held by a versatile elastomer mounting strap.

A taillight’s most important job is to help you be seen, and if it’s also fun to use, that’s a bonus. The Knog Blinder V Rear Bike Light’s Bolt version (the one I tested) has eight modes. And six of those modes feature a lightning-bolt pattern, which cuts through urban light pollution simply because it’s different. The Knog Blinder V is not as bright as our top-pick taillight, but it too features a mass of COB LEDs that grab attention in the same way.

Unlike most taillights I tested, the Blinder V is waterproof—a compelling feature for foul-weather commuters. However, the Blinder V attaches via a single silicone band, and it feels flimsy compared with the Hotrod 120’s wider, stiffer elastomer mounting strap.

With a double-click of the power button, the Blackburn Grid 2’Fer toggles between red and white lights. That means you can run it as a 175-lumen headlight or as a 55-lumen taillight. We don’t recommend using the headlight mode—it’s just not strong enough. However, the taillight mode offers decent battery life, a color-coded battery warning button, and a red ring that boosts lateral visibility.

The Grid 2’Fer isn’t nearly as bright as our other two taillight picks, but the belt clip lets you mount the light on a backpack or a pannier. It’s also more water-resistant than the Hotrod 120, and it has a USB-C port, which is still a rarity among bike lights.